In 2364, the Tsiolkovskiy was assigned to observe the collapse of a red giantstar. During that mission the crew fell victim to a form of polywater intoxication. After losing contact, Starfleet ordered the USS Enterprise-D to investigate the fate of the vessel and its 80 crew members. The Tsiolkovskiy was discovered adrift in space, its bridge open to space due to an open emergency hatch, with all hands lost. When the Enterprise crew became infected with the same virus, and was in danger from a stellar core fragment, they bounced a repulser beam off the Tsiolkovsky, which pushed the Enterprise away from the fragment, providing the necessary time needed to restore power to the engines and warp away. While the Enterprise survived, the Tsiolkovskiy was destroyed. (TNG: "The Naked Now")

This was one of only a handful of Starfleet ships not established to have the prefix "USS" before the name, as "SS" is used instead. While no explanation was tendered in the episode, the plaque identified Tsiolkovskiy as a Starfleet registered vessel (with an NCC number), and there was a Starfleet crewmember's corpse aboard. Its possible calling it "SS" instead of "USS" mirrors a current US Navy convention of "de-commissioning" a ship on loan to another (non-Navy) agency, with an identical change of name prefix to "SS", "USNS" or none at all.

The Star Trek Encyclopedia listed this ship as the USS Tsiolkovsky.

SS Tsiolkovsky, "NCC-640"

The registry number on the studio model was originally not discernible on-screen. However, when a beginning was made in 2012 with TNG-Remastered, it was discovered that the model wore the registry "NCC-640", carried over from its previous use as the USS Copernicus in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Michael Okuda has remarked years later in this respect, "I seem to recall that Grissom may have been relabeled to serve as another ship (the Copernicus?) in Star Trek III or IV. I didn't try to relabel the model for 'The Naked Now,' partly because we realized that the existing registry would not be legible in standard-def video, but also because we were all so insanely busy at the time that no one could take on an additional project that wasn't likely to be seen on the screen." [1] The number was digitally changed to its correct one in the first full side view establishing shot. Unfortunately, the digital artist overlooked the previous scenes and the later scene when the stellar core fragment smashes into the Tsiolkovskiy, as it there still carries the original, now discernible, registry number.

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